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Today

Tonight

Casper resident Taylor Weber, 20, warms up on an exercise
machine as assistant coach Marc Mast, left, and head coach James
Upham, right, watch at Parkway Plaza in Casper on Nov. 16. Weber,
whose spinal cord was crushed during a car accident two years ago,
was training with the U.S. Paralympic Team during a week-long
biathalon camp.

Joshua A. Bickel | Star-Tribune

Weber pulls his legs into a set of sit-skis before heading out
to train on the Nordic trail at Casper Mountain. Weber’s spinal
cord was crushed during a car accident two years ago.

Joshua A. Bickel | Star-Tribune

Head coach Rob Rosser, left, gives Weber some pointers for
pulling himself up the incline at the Casper Mountain Nordic Trail
in Casper.

Joshua A. Bickel | Star-Tribune

Taylor grimaces as he pulls himself up a slight incline with
coaching assistant Marc Mast following behind, offering words of
encouragement Nov. 16, 2011 at Casper Mountain.

Joshua A. Bickel | Star-Tribune

After life-altering crash, Mills man trains for biathlon

Casper resident Taylor Weber, 20, warms up on an exercise
machine as assistant coach Marc Mast, left, and head coach James
Upham, right, watch at Parkway Plaza in Casper on Nov. 16. Weber,
whose spinal cord was crushed during a car accident two years ago,
was training with the U.S. Paralympic Team during a week-long
biathalon camp.

Joshua A. Bickel | Star-Tribune

Weber pulls his legs into a set of sit-skis before heading out
to train on the Nordic trail at Casper Mountain. Weber’s spinal
cord was crushed during a car accident two years ago.

Joshua A. Bickel | Star-Tribune

Head coach Rob Rosser, left, gives Weber some pointers for
pulling himself up the incline at the Casper Mountain Nordic Trail
in Casper.

Joshua A. Bickel | Star-Tribune

Taylor grimaces as he pulls himself up a slight incline with
coaching assistant Marc Mast following behind, offering words of
encouragement Nov. 16, 2011 at Casper Mountain.

Joshua A. Bickel | Star-Tribune

Taylor Weber lies belly-down on the carpet of the Parkway Plaza
Hotel, aiming an electronic rifle across a nearly empty
hallway.

He props himself on his elbows and steadies the weapon. His
target is 10 meters away — a gray box with five bull’s-eyes, each
about the size of a golf ball.

There’s no shot when he pulls the trigger. Instead, a robotic
voice with a Finnish accent speaks from a laptop to Weber’s
right.

“You hit,” it says. “6.29 o’clock.”

Weber’s empty wheelchair sits several feet away. Behind it, a
small group of athletes kill time by checking cell phones and
chatting with one another.

They’re here in Casper for the U.S. Paralympic Nordic Biathlon
training camp. For a week, the competitors will race in time
trials, hone their shooting skills and build endurance on ski
trails. Some are already members of the national team, with years
of experience. Weber, a 20-year-old college student living in
Mills, has little more than a week’s worth of training.

Before the accident, he played football and basketball at his
school in Midwest. Biathlon is nothing like those sports. It blends
the aerobic demands of cross-country skiing with the precision of
riflery.

The sport offers Weber something he didn’t find during his
recovery: A chance to compete again.

“Rehab was learning how to operate in life again,” he says.
“Here, you are trying to do more than just get by.”

Paralyzed

A 2009 car accident killed Weber’s mother and crushed his spinal
cord. He woke from a coma to discover he was paralyzed from the
waist down.

Rehab in a Craig, Colo., hospital taught him how to function in
a wheelchair. But afterward, Weber did little to exercise.

A friend suggested he call Rob Rosser, an Olympian and Iraq War
veteran who trains athletes for the national Paralympic biathlon
team. Rosser, who lives on Casper Mountain, visited Weber at his
home in Mills and encouraged him to try the sport.

“They’ve undergone a terrible experience and they see their
world and options may be diminished,” he explains. “Maybe seeing
this out there ... hopefully it gives him a ray of light, saying,
‘Well, if this is there, what else is there?’”

Weber spent a week last winter training with the team. It wasn’t
easy. He felt out of place when he arrived, wearing a Carhartt
jacket instead of the ski gear worn by other biathletes.

Skiing also proved difficult. Paralympic athletes use sit-skis —
basically a seat attached to a set of cross country skis — for the
Nordic portion of their sport. Weber borrowed a heavy ski that
barely moved with each push of his poles.

The experience didn’t exactly set his world on fire. When the
camp ended, so did his focus on the sport.

Rosser called Weber this summer and encouraged him to give
biathlon another try. Weber seemed reluctant at first. College
remained his top priority.

But on the first day of training camp, Weber arrived early.

“He has been 10 minutes early to each event,” Rosser says.
“That’s sometimes rare for some of our adult athletes. Those things
show me a lot.”

Power and endurance

After the shooting drill, Weber wheels into the Parkway gym,
where coaches have set up a “SkiErg” — a treadmill-like device for
cross-country skiers.

Cords attached to the machine allow athletes to mimic the pole
movements of Nordic skiing. The SkiErg also measures power and
endurance.

Weber waits as two more experienced athletes take their turn on
the machine. Both are military veterans. One broke his back in a
helicopter training accident. Another lost his lower legs after he
stepped on a mine in Afghanistan.

Weber doesn’t dwell much on his own injury.

“I just woke up this way, and ‘All right, you have to deal with
it,’” he says. “I don’t really compare it to my life before I was
paralyzed.”

When it’s Weber’s turn, a coach runs him through a series of
30-second intervals on the SkiErg. The former quarterback pulls
down on the cords and exhales as he lunges forward. Muscles flex in
his arms and back. Strain shows on his face.

When it’s over, he smiles and shakes the soreness from his arms.
He remains unsure about biathlon. But he wants to show he’s up to
the task.

“There [were] a lot of people watching me, and I was kind of
nervous before about not even finishing,” he says. “I don’t
know...kind of had something to prove.”

The workout

Weber made sure he didn’t repeat his Carhartt mistake. Before
this year’s camp, he spent hundreds on workout gear.

He’s wearing the new clothes when he arrives at the Casper
Nordic Center for the next day’s training.

“I look weird enough,” he jokes. “I got to look good on the
outside.”

Most competitors spent the morning in a time trial. Weber, who’s
studying to become a teacher, had to attend classes.

He waits quietly as the coaches prepare his sit-ski. Elite
biathletes have customized sit-skis. Since Weber is starting out,
he’s borrowing one. It doesn’t exactly fit his body, so the coaches
attach pads to the seat with duct tape.

Balancing isn’t all that difficult. Developing the endurance to
propel the ski presents a bigger challenge, says Cathy Nyrkkanen,
an assistant coach for the team. That’s especially the case for
athletes with spinal cord injuries, who must build muscle in their
weakened core.

“It just takes time to gain it back,” she says.

Once he’s secure, Weber maneuvers to a trail behind the Nordic
center. The other athletes glide into their workouts.

Taylor is last to begin. He looks nervous, and at first,
struggles to keep his momentum. The second lap is mostly uphill,
and it shows on Weber’s face. He works for every foot.

Rosser skis alongside, offering advice. Concentrate on
technique. Develop good habits now to break bad ones later. The
light begins to fade and the trail, which had been full of high
school skiers, starts to thin out. Rosser wants a few more laps
from his athlete.

They train as the sun sets and the wind picks up. Rosser’s
suggestions appear to be working. Weber glides along a little
easier than before. There’s more confidence in his movements; less
strain to keep the ski moving along.

“Better,” the coach says. “Much better.”

Finally, the workout is over. Weber is drained. His arms fail
him for a moment when he maneuvers his wheelchair back into the
lodge.

Burning muscles aside, he’s happy with his performance. “I feel
more confident this time around,” he says. “I feel like I was
actually progressing.”

He still hasn’t decided whether he’ll commit to becoming a
Paralympic athlete. But for now, he’ll keep training.

“Today, I’m feeling a lot more into it,” he says. “It depends on
the day. Today, I felt great. I wanted to get out there.”

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